Using jEdit with IDL
Screenshot of jEdit 4.1 in action showing IDL syntax highlighting, the BufferTabs plugin, and code folding.
Recently I stumbled on jEdit - the open source programmer's text editor - while looking for python editor/IDE. jEdit is a mature, full featured text editor with a suite of powerful plugins. As an added bonus it is open source, written in Java, and runs on pretty much any platform IDL runs on. After creating an IDL (as in Interactive Data Language) edit mode and using it for a few weeks I am really impressed. If you have been looking for a good IDL aware text editor and you phear IDLWAVE, this is your editor.
jEdit's real power comes from it's plugin architecture. While there are a number of compelling plugins, you will need the Editor Scheme plugin to use the scheme I provide below. I also recommend the BufferTabs, Code2HTML, and Templates plugins (required to use the example IDL class template included in the download.) All plugins are available via the plugin manager within jEdit.
Currently I can only offer a mode file, editor scheme and example template for jEdit. These files will help jEdit emulate the look of IDLDE. Creating a full-featured development environment around jEdit is possible and I encourage those of you who find jEdit useful to start work on your own jEdit IDL plugins. There are numerous plugins that could serve as models and I would be happy to help in any way that I can.
Download and Installation
The file below contains the idl-pvwave edit mode and catalog file, an IDLDE scheme, and an example IDL class template for use with the templates plugin. To use these files download and install jEdit. Unzip the files below and then follow the instructions in the README.TXT file.
jedit_idlFiles.zip